Dr Kaley

I would have to say getting through my doctorate, because growing up I was placed in the special reading classes because I do have a learning disability. Growing up in the 90s and early 2000s, they kind of wrote students off like me, thinking we're not gonna do anything with our lives. I made it a point to get into college without any accommodations and just to push through it and give it 120%, and really prove to myself at that point that I could do this, that I was more than my disability. I had a college professor who knew me when I was young and she tells me all the time that she never let me put myself down because she knew the potential I had to do anything I wanted to do. I just needed to get my life together a little bit, and that's why she stood in my corner and helped me wherever she could to point me in the right direction.

Communication really plays off the humanities field and the psychology field, and when you're looking at it with technology and social media, we've become a self-absorbed society where everything is me, me, me. We're forgetting our soft skills, how to interact with each other, how to just be kind to people. Because of social media, we feel like we can write things on a post that we would never say to somebody's face. From a psychology perspective, we're just kind of losing the soft skills and the self-awareness and our emotional intelligence. Gen Z's communication skills are not very well, and what's happening is a lot of employers now are starting to fire them because they don't have those essential soft skills that they need to keep the business going and to keep the organizational culture where it needs to be. Technology students think they don't have to communicate with people, but they do - whether it's walking someone through restarting their computer or being an entrepreneur starting an e-business, it's all about how you talk to people and your image that you're putting out there.

Family is very important to me. I have 3 kids, and my youngest one is on the spectrum with ABA therapy 3 to 4 times a week for almost 5 hours. When I do have time, we just spend it together as a family, whether that's going on walks or going to a new place just to explore it. We really focus on spending time as a family and putting the technology down so we can live in the moment together. I also believe it's important for people to know that you're more than just what they're saying a disability is, because we're all called to do something great. It's what we do with that calling that's gonna make us stand out.